Distorted | Week 3 | Message

Is how they used to catch monkeys in Africa and Asia. How do you like that transition? Wasn't that really cool? Don't try it at home. I'm a professional.

No. But no. Was thinking about this is I've seen a video of it too because they still do it in some places. But then when they would capture these monkeys and they weren't capturing them to make them pets or go to the zoo, they were capturing them to mainly eat them.

And or secondary, if they were, like, getting into their crops or their food and stuff and they were a pest, they'd capture them just to kill them, just to and probably eat them. But, how they would do it, it's really interesting. They they would take either a gourd, like a coconut or a big gourd or or a box that they had, and you'd cut a hole in it that was just big enough that the monkey's hand can get in there. And then you put like their favorite fruit or something baked, something they they want.

And and and then they grab it, but when they're holding something, they can't get their hand out. And so they will sit there, grab it, try it again, and they keep trying, keep trying, then they start hogging. And

then that's the alarm. They're their own alarm to let you know the trap has worked. And then and I've seen a video. A guy walks up, he gets stuck, and he starts walking around. It sees the perks the danger coming, starts freaking out, and just going crazy. But won't let go of the fruit.

It'll just hold on to it. And then you then my thought was this video. I said, because I I've heard about it. I've read about it, but I found a modern video of it still happening. And I thought, is is it they do that because they're just too dumb?

But that's not true because this monkey sat there freaking out as I came up with a snare. And right as he got this rope around its neck to, like, do it in, then it let go. So it knew it could let go the whole time. It just refused to let go. It says it wanted what was in there so bad

that it wouldn't let go even when it was gonna kill the monkey. And that's kind of what we're gonna talk about today in this distorted series where we've been looking at some of the common distorted sayings that people think the Bible says. And and and and this one's a big one, and it it has to do with money.

And and the most common misconception is the people think the Bible says the money is the root of all evil, and it's not. And what we're gonna see is actually, it's not the money,

it's the motive that the Bible talks about is a problem. It's not the money, it's the motive. And what we're probably gonna see is we try to deal with that and look at what the Bible really says the deal is with money and the evil that it can cause in our lives and why and what we're supposed to do with it.

I'm we're gonna actually see that I think our biggest problem is we act like the monkeys. We get ourselves trapped, and we just won't let go. And and and that's the issue. And everyone's staring at me. They're all puckering up because I said money. Right? Well, buckle up. Here we go.

No. It it we're gonna be in first Timothy chapter six, and and and what's interesting about this letter is to Timothy. Who is Timothy? He was a guy that the apostle Paul kinda got to know and he poured into a disciple. He went on missionary trips with him when he was a teenager. By the time he was a teenager.

Well, now he is the pastor at the church in Ephesus.

He's only about 28 to 32 years old, which is really young for this culture to already be leading this church. And Paul writes this letter to encourage him as a leader and help him deal with what he's dealing with as a leader in this church. Because Ephesus was was an interesting church and that, you know, they didn't have church transfer. So everyone that was at this church, they had led to Jesus from within this community

and the city. And the cities were almost like little countries. They had their own culture.

And the culture of Ephesus was Ephesus was the wealthiest city in the Roman Empire. They were all about money and success and sex. Matter of fact, at the library I've been there. I've been to Ephesus and they they have the old building. It was a library.

And what they talked about is they said there's a tunnel underground that goes from inside the library across the street here to the brothel.

And men would tell their wives they're going to the library, and they weren't lying. They'd walk in the library and then go across under the tunnel. So it was sex obsessed worship, and money, and success, and materialism,

and and keeping up with the Joneses, and and and being that. So it's gonna be hard for me to connect the dots from that culture to ours.

You guys need to keep up. Okay? Come on. And and Paul was telling him, hey, here's the issue he's having. A lot of it is he's trying to encourage Timothy on how to grow his and and and love his people into a deeper real relationship with with Christ that actually truly gives transformative life.

And one of the big issues, he saved it for the last chapter, was you have to deal with the money issue and the motive behind what money is for and what people are doing with it because it's enslaving them. And what's happening is that people saying, I love Jesus, but I wanna hold on

to my view of money. I wanna hold on to what culture says. I wanna hold on to this stuff, and they won't let go. And I think we have the same struggle today in our culture.

So what I wanna do is I wanna read a few verses in chapter six, and it starts with they had these false teachers just like last week in Corinthian. People that came in, he said, watch out for them. Develop leaders. Do this. And one thing he says is you gotta understand with this false teachers. Chapter six starts off talking about false teaching and then jumps to what true riches are. Because a lot of these false teachers taught this prosperity gospel society that God wants you to be rich. You should go after the money. They wanted to be rich themselves, these false teachers, and they were making it all about that as the as the as the trophy and misleading these people, and and he says that's not real riches. That's not where you're find life. Matter of fact, that's a snare. That's a trap. That's a monkey holding on to a piece of fruit, and you're gonna die and not find real freedom if you keep doing that. And so he he he

talks to him about that, and then right in verse six, he starts to to confront the the myth that we're talking about, the distortion of money is the root of all evil. And he says, nope. It's not the money. It's the motive. When he says this, verse six. Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.

After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into the temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires

that plunge them into ruin and destruction. And here's the distorted part said accurately. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

So he's saying, hey, you gotta talk about this. He's he's he's encouraging Timothy as he has to talk to his own congregation whom he loves, and he wants them to have freedom. And he just unpackages

this idea of where true riches comes. And he goes, hey, money is not the problem. He never says money is the problem. It's the motive in the heart. It's what is money to people?

What is it to you and I? Because that's where the real problem comes from. Just like with the monkey was the fruit the problem in that scenario with the monkey trap? No. The problem lied in the in the monkey, not in the fruit.

And that's the same thing we gotta realize with with with us today. And so in here, there's four things I wanna talk about. And I read it

in the proper order. I'm gonna teach it in reverse order. So so I'm gonna look at these verse by verse here, look couple of these verses. I wanna start with verse 10 and and make a few points about what does this really mean? What do we need to understand here to encourage us to how do we find the true life? How do we really get the the freedom that God wants for us instead of thinking money is just something God and the church wants from us?

How do I really look at it? And the first thing is the sound in verse 10. It's the answer of it's not the money. That's not what it says. It's the love of money that leads to many kinds of evil. So what does this mean when it says love of money?

And and it's really the the the word. I'm gonna be a little teachy here. The Greek word for that love of money is is philargoria. And and what it literally means is an obsessive craving. Now what that means is is it's it's it's it's what your destination is is you want the money and everything it brings.

You have this craving to be successful. You have this craving for things. You have a craving for comfort. You have a craving for that. And so it's this obsessive. You put that ahead of everything else including trusting God. It's really talking a lot about why Jesus

talked about money 13 unique times in the New Testament. Not including just using money in an example in in a in a in a parable, but literally the point of what he's talking about is money. He did it 13 times. And it wasn't because he was obsessed with money. It's because he knew that this is a big problem for us.

Because he also said, you can't serve both God and money. Why is he saying that? It's because money is one of the number one idols we get. We end up thinking we we we end up making money the idol that we worship. Why? Why do we replace God with that? Because money actually can give us comfort.

It can give us a different standard of living. It can make us look important. It can make us feel good. It can do all these things, and that we trust start to trust in that. And if you're gonna trust in money, you won't trust God, and you won't trust God with your money.

Because what you'll trust is you'll start going after what these false teachers were teaching is, if you just love God and do these rules, he's going to make you rich.

See, when you do that, is the goal really worshiping God or trusting God, or is the goal I want the money? Like some of us when we come to church and we do the right things because we're really like the old Jerry Maguire, show me the money.

You're like, I'm gonna serve God. And then and then if you have that mentality and you do all these things and you don't get richer, you don't get more money, you don't get more comfortable, now you're mad at God.

And so what we gotta understand, he's saying, do not have this obsessive craving. The reason he has to talk about money and then point us to what we're supposed to do with money is because God cares about us. And Timothy loved his people. So he's willing to talk about something that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

And we we don't like to talk about it. But it's not the money, it's the love of it. And he says that love is the root of all kinds of evil. That means it's not the only root, but it feeds many destructive outcomes. It ends up piercing us. He used that word pierce themselves.

It says it's a deep spiritual emotional self harm that's caused by chasing it. In other words, when you pierce yourself, it's it's it's the monkey again. It's like you're causing yourself because you're holding on to this and you don't have freedom. You're enslaved. You think this is freedom, but it's not.

And the only way to be free is to let go. To let go. But we struggle with that because money is supposed to be a tool. But when we treat it like a treasure, it starts to own us instead of serve us.

Matter of fact, George Barna, you know, did a study a few years ago, and they found out sixty two percent of Americans worry about money every day. The other 38%, are liars.

No. Actually, it's every other day for them.

Forty seven percent say it negatively affects their mental health.

That obsessive love of money, and it's not it's more subtle. Something like, I don't sit there going money money money money money money money money. We're not sitting there doing that all the time. But that obsessing over it, that worry about it, that fear of holding it like this, having scarcity mentality,

I can't be generous because I don't have enough for me. All of those fears, the idea of overspending,

retail therapy, you know, the idea of getting yourself in debt because you just wanted something so bad, and then the stress that all those things. All of those things are related to this what this is bible is saying is the problem.

And it'll creates all kinds of problems, and it can affect your mental health. Because when money owns your thoughts, guys, if you when money owns your thoughts,

it already rules your life. It's in charge. It's owning you. And and we don't even realize it. And we get frustrated.

Because back in verse nine verse nine, then if it's not the money, it's love of money, because verse nine clearly says, loving money warps our perspective and wrecks our lives.

He says those who long to be rich, and that long to be rich doesn't mean I wanna go be, you know, Elon Musk, you know, and have people burning my cars because they don't like me anymore or anything like that. It it it it has to do with not the mere possession, but it's an ambition.

It's not about the total goes about, I always wanna have more. It's that that pursuit is what it means. He says when we go after that and we focus on that, he says that he uses this word there's temptation and that they are trapped. We are trapped when this happens.

And that temptation trap, that's cock like the monkey. It's a subtle thing. You don't even realize. It it tempts you, and then it's it's this subtle spiritual ensnarement. And then it says it plunges. Plunges in verse nine, into ruin and destruction. The Greek word for plunge means to be dragged underwater.

In other words, when I let money rule my thoughts, and I worry about it all the time, it's suffocating. It's funny because when we end up debt, we're in trouble. We say, what? I'm underwater. Because you feel like you're drowning. And that's the result of not that's result of even if you have money.

If you're craving after going you never have enough. You're always worried about what's next. You always want more.

They've they've done this study multiple times, and I just read it again. It's always moved up as as as inflation and stuff. But the last time I I read it, they asked people of every income from poverty level, which in United States is like $28,000 a year for a family, all the way up to people that make $250,000 a year.

And they said, hey. Not that you can have your wildest dreams or you won the lottery, but how much money to make for you to make a year or even per month, they said it, would would would you think if you had that, you'd be absolutely content and you'd be set. It's not like you're gonna go off and be the wildest, but how much would you think you need? And they asked the poverty level, and they said 12 to $1,500

a month. They asked the next level like, you know, like 35 to 50,000, 60,000, and they said 1,200 to $1,500 a month. They asked 60,000 to 100,000, and guess what the answer was? 1,200 to $1,500 a month. They asked the 100 to 200,000, how much? 1,200 to $1,500 a month. That's $250,000

your people. Like, well, if I had another 1,200 to $1,500, I think I'm set. I'd be content the rest of my life. And you know what? A lot of you are staring at me funny, but you're you're thinking what kind of wizardry because that's exactly what you think. If I had 18 to $20,000 a year more, that's when I think I'd be okay.

I'm guessing I hit a nerve

of being accurate. Because you know why I know it's true? Because that's what I used to do all the time. That next raise, that next rose, that next job, that next thing, then I'll be set, then I'll be happy. It's like the it's like seeing water in the desert in the distance. You never get there.

It's if that's what he's talking about. It's like it's it's this this issue that that that it warps our perspective, and then it starts wrecking our lives.

It warps our perspective. We start to get this warped view of of of what I need, what is money. We get a warped view of what is acceptable. We get a warped view of what I have to have. We get a warp view of what you expect God should give you. And I think one of the ways we really get warped is is looking around.

And and and and it affects us because we start to compare and we start to look and stuff. Like, for example, let me make this a perfect example. I grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. But I grew up in South Scottsdale.

And and and and if the cliche is true in Scottsdale, the South side of town is the roughest side of town. But have you been to South Scottsdale? It's where Old Town is. It's not that rough. It's not like, wow, you grew up on the mean streets of South Scottsdale.

You know, it was like, especially back when I grew up there in the seventies and eighties. It was it was great. And it was this great, you know, place. But the problem is where I lived was right on the border. So the school I went to is I went to school with a lot of with all the people that lived on Camelback Mountain

and the Arcadia District. And so I was even though I'm in Scottsdale, I felt like I was poor. I always felt like our family was broke. We're poor. We don't have what everyone else has. Woe is me. Woe is me. As I got into high school and all my friends were given Mercedes when they were 16,

my my parents helped me because I got good grades. They helped me buy from a friend an old beat up 1972 Camaro. And then I slowly fixed it up. And then when it got perfectly awesome and looked like the greatest car ever, I'm still like, woe is me. I only have this Camaro and my friend has a Mercedes.

It warps your perspective.

Think about this for perspective. A lot of us, we don't think we're very rich. Compared to the rest of the world, we are some of the richest people on the planet. You know, Americans, if if if you I just looked up what the average family draws on welfare. If you if you're on welfare, in between everything you get,

you will make more money than 60% of the rest of the world does per year.

If you make the median income that this area has, which is probably median means right in the middle, it puts us in the top three to 5% of wealth in the world.

Why do we always feel like we're too broke? We have a wrecked perspective. We have this warp and you know what? It affects our lives. It starts to wreck our lives because we start overspending.

Do you realize that the average well, it's probably changed in the last few years because with interest rates and stuff, locked off one of our ways to do this, and it's why we feel so stressed about money is in this community, the average family, with us being in some of the wealthiest people on the planet,

live on a 125% of our income per year.

The average family. And you're like, that wasn't me. I don't well, here's the deal. They go, how does that even math out? How do you live on more? Well, you got credit cards, you got loans, you refinance your house. That's the big one. You know what we used to do around here to live on more? It's like and you probably done it. See what I'd used to. See, like, every four to five years. Man, my house is worth a lot. Interest rates are low. I'm gonna pull money out and boom. And then you spent it. Well, guess what? If you do that every four or five years, we'll divide what you just pulled out by four or five, and you spent that much extra per year.

Wrecked perspective. We don't even realize. We it pushes us to live beyond ourselves, and then we're stressed, and then we're frustrated,

and then we carry the weight, and then that's what flips over into the idea that it gave my master's degree was in marriage and family stuff. And I and I did a lot of counseling back in the day on this and learned about it, and it was like one of the number one things that couples first start fighting about the most is money.

And and why are they fighting about money? I'm telling you, out of every 100 people I ever talked to, only one was you really can't afford to live. You are so broke, out of job with this, and you're fighting over money because they're you're really about to be homeless.

The other 99 was, you guys make plenty of money to live contented lives. You're fighting because you don't make enough money for two people to wanna spend money that they don't have exorbitantly on stuff that you both disagree on what you should be spending it on.

That's where the fight comes. It comes from, I wanna spend too much money on this. No. I wanna spend too much money on this. Because I you know I know this? Because I would do that with my wife.

And that's what it means when it says it warps our perspective. We get this warped view. And then the other thing that warps is why a lot you are staring at me with dead eyes right now, because you really think, here he goes again, he's gonna talk about money, and you're offended by it. You have a warped perspective.

I am not hurting you. I'm not trying to take something from you. I don't have some hidden wicked agenda.

I'm not one of these false teachers trying to get wealthy. Come over to my house. I'll show you. I I I'm telling you. That is not what's going on here. I'm trying to be what the Bible says and what Peter I mean, Paul challenged Timothy to do to his church in a rich community to say, this is a big problem,

and it'll keep you from the life really God wants you. And you can't live in both worlds. We can't do it because we miss out. And the reason we get frustrated is because our perspective has been warped, and it starts to wreck our lives. In other words, chasing wealth often means leaving wisdom behind,

and we end up getting frustrated. It affects our relationships. Let me give you example from when I was a kid. I was a little kid. Wasn't in school yet. My mom took me out to do some errands. She had to stop at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. We're waiting in line,

and and right by the line was it was near Halloween, so there was, like, those bins of candy. And I start looking at the candy, and it's right there. I mean, why would they do that? They do it on purpose.

And so I start bugging my mom about, can I have candy? No. I want some candy. No. You don't need candy. Trust me. You'll be fine. Just I got a plan. Nope. I didn't I didn't hear any of I just heard, I want candy, and my mom said no. And so I'm mad at her. I'm like, I can't believe my mom doesn't love me enough. There's candy right here. I can see it. I want it. Doesn't she know? She knows. So as she's standing in line, I just I do the dumbest thing ever. I just sit there and start looking at it.

I'm like, my precious.

And I just want it. Now I'm getting frustrated with my mom. I think she's not a good mom because she's holding out on me, telling me not to have the candy,

but I want the candy. So then I noticed, I look really close, and one of the bags apparently got ripped when it got thrown in the bin, and so there's a piece of candy hanging out. I'm like,

sugar rush starting to hit. It felt so good. And then I said, I'm content. That was enough. No. I was four years old. I was like, I I I gotta have more, but there's no more falling out of the hole. So then I just what happens if the hole got bigger? Bunch pours out. So now I start eating.

I'm trying to eat as much as I can before my mom turns on, because now she's talking to the guy. Then I'm like, oh, no.

I I I scarf all this kid. I realized, but that's not enough. I want more because I gotta have enough for I I gotta hoard candy because I gotta make sure I have enough to last, you know. I gotta get more. I gotta get more. But my mom's gonna turn around. So what I did is I grabbed a bunch and I stuffed it in my pocket

because I had to have more. She comes by, grabs my hand, we walk out. And as I'm walking out, I started to reflect and I started to feel guilty. Well, not so much guilt about how I didn't listen to my mom. I started to feel actually concerned that I'm gonna get caught.

That's really what was driving me at the moment. So as we walked out, I said, you know, I gotta bail out. Gotta get rid of this extra candy because I don't wanna get busted.

So as we're walking out, I thought and I'm Tom Cruise. I'm doing a Mission Impossible moment. I just walked out as we're walking. Showing him hand, I was like, I

just throw it out under a car as we walked by. And I thought, man, that was the best move ever. I I I so controlled

this in this this moment. And my mom goes, why did you just throw candy from your pocket underneath the car right there? Where do you get the candy? And go, what are you talking about? Didn't have any candy in my pocket. I didn't throw it under the car. Could see the candy right there. And then I realized, I mean, why did I think she she was watching me the whole time. When you have kids, you I remember what I thought then. I remember now watching my kids do this. She was looking at me the whole time. She literally watched me do it and I acted like I didn't do anything. Kinda like we do with God sometimes. Well, he doesn't. No. I'll just I'm not gonna actually listen to him on this. He's everywhere.

He sees. And and and so then I argue with him. And she goes, oh, son, what have you done? She picks it all up, and she goes, let's go. And I start to head towards the car. She grabs my hand and goes, no. We're not going that way. She starts walking back in.

So she's holding my hand. I go, why aren't we going back in? I gotta pay for the bag of candy you stole, and you're gonna apologize. And when she said that, I was like, I became the monkey. But it was too late. I've already been caught in the snare.

And so she sucks me in there and I didn't wanna do this. She picks me up and I did that kid thing where you're embarrassed, you just don't wanna do buried my head into her shoulder to the point I was trying to push my face all the way through to the other side. And she's always like, and I was like, and

she comes up pace. She goes, alright. You need to say something, man. She I'm like, and I wouldn't do it. She's like, you gotta say you're sorry. And then I fought her, fought her, and I'm finally, you hear she without even moving my head, I just go, it's scary. She goes, no. Like a real human being,

and you need to look at the man. So I turned, and I just busted out bawling. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. She hugged me. We left. Went on other errands for about another hour, hour and a half. And as we're driving home, instead of going straight towards our house, she turns into Dairy Queen.

And she gets out, I go, oh, what's going on? She goes, I'm getting you an ice cream, which was my plan all along. It's why I told you to not worry about the candy. See, I didn't trust her plan. I wanted what I wanted. I wanted more of it. I wanted enough, and I thought she was trying to take something from me.

And I kicked and screamed and fought on it.

That's what this focus, love of money, making it an idol, that's the perspective that wrecks our lives. It just does. Because it's not the money. It's the love of money. Loving money warps our perspective and wrecks our lives. But godly point three. Godly contentment is greater than worldly riches.

Right in verse six to eight, he says, yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. He uses two words there. True godliness with contentment. That word godliness means a daily devotion to God with what you do and what you have. It's a daily devotion to God with what you do and what you have.

It's not just having a quiet time, reading a few bible verses, saying, hey, God. Thanks for loving me, and then forgetting about it the rest of the day. It's devoting yourself to doing what he's invited us to do and bringing what we have to it. That's godliness. We don't always have it. We fail.

And when we say we're sorry, God still loves us and he'll still take us to Dairy Queen.

But we have to understand because that he had implies that that type of trust is what brings contentment. He said true contentment. See, part of the thing that warps our perspective and wrecks our lives is you're never content with what you have when money is the thing that you want the most.

Like I said, always a little bit more. So you're never truly content where you're at. But when you contentment, Paul says in another passage of scriptures that basically, he's learned the secret of contentment and what he explains is wanting what you have.

You see what really wrecks our lives when we focus on money is we focus more on what we don't have instead of what we do have.

That's what happened to me when I was growing up in Scottsdale and I got to high school and I started to worry more about the things I didn't have that my friends had, and it messed with me instead of just celebrating and and being so thankful for what I do have.

And that contentment, the Greek word there is,

and it's it's it it literally means an inner sufficiency regardless of external circumstances. It's the peace that surpasses all understanding. You see, this is how the love of money wrecks our lives, the main way. Your happiness and your contentment, if you if you if you think money is the thing and you run after this,

your contentment is always controlled by your circumstances. Always. But when you trust God by his power and his love, you start to have a contentment that you're actually can be happy and content even when you don't have much.

If you travel the world I get to travel a lot of places in the world. Some of them are beautiful. A lot of them are are poverty stricken. And guess where I've met the happiest people ever? In the poorest places I've been.

And that usually confuses people with money because the warped perspective we have is if I don't have a lot, I can't be happy. And that's why we hoard the candy. And then you're afraid someone's trying to take it away from you. It's why we hold on and we won't let go.

We're enslaved when we do this. We're trapped when we do this. All you have to do is let go, and you have the freedom to walk away from that and walk towards the blessing and the life, the real life that God has for us. Wouldn't we do that? When I do that? When you do that?

And the way to do that is is to to have that contentment. The way to do that from a money standpoint would be to have a budget, but even budget with this in mind. See, most of us just budget every dollar to go to things without thinking about two things, margin and mission.

God wants us to budget with margin, but we we save a little. Bible talks to saving is a good thing, to put some a little bit away. So don't ever spend all of your money.

If you think a budget is how I maximize spend everything I have, and most of us, like I already said, live beyond that. We use credit, and we we spend beyond what we have. And the Bible says you should save, and then mission is give. Be generous towards the mission that God's called us to.

That's what you're afraid I'm always asking for. And and and the reality is we should plan both of those. But if we're living on a 120% of our income, how do I have any money to give to for margin

and for mission? So I'm not getting the blessing of the mission. I'm not getting the contentment and the peace of mind of the margin. I'm living in the stress all the time. And that is why everyone puckers up when I say, hey, you know what? We're gonna talk about money today.

Because all it did was cause all of that stress to rise again.

It's because we miss out on the last point, that we need to use money as a tool, not a trophy.

And I'm gonna read verse 17 through 19. Before I read that, here's what I mean. We think that that that money is the thing I really need. It's the trophy. It's the the victory. It's the win, is to have the stuff. And if I if I treat it that way, well, then you know what happens?

When I treat money as the trophy instead of the tool, it's like because when you win a trophy, the Stanley Cup or or whatever, it's it's the it's representative of that was the victory. The victory is I won this game. Right? Well, when money becomes the trophy,

it's about the comfort, the things, the money could buy. Guess what I turned God into? God is not the victory. The relationship with him is that his mission isn't the victory. You know what it is? Him doing that for me is the victory. I really want this from God. I just want him to be the commissioner of the league that hands me the trophy. That's what I really want. Well done. You won the trophy. Good job. And that's what legalism is. Legalism is I go play these by these rules, and then I win the trophy and the commissioner hands me the victory trophy. That's what I really want. I want the trophy.

And that's where we get stuck. And what realizes we're not wired for this. When I do that, then I I I'm not gonna be generous. I'm gonna be tight fists. I'm gonna live in I'm gonna live by what's the scarcity principle. I can't live. I can't be this way because there's not enough for me. There's never enough for me.

And guess what? Studies have proven we're not meant to be that way. These are secular studies I just I just researched that aren't from Christian organizations and not some that I don't have belong to some secret website for pastors of, hey, here's a way to manipulate your people into giving more money.

I mean, that one of those might exist. I don't belong to it. Okay? Harvard did a study. It's the longest ever study on adult development where they they followed people for decades and said, okay. What really caught what was really the thing that brought contentment

and and happiness over a long period of time? Money wasn't even on the list. They say people made less money and were more happy. People making more money and having more stuff was not even remotely on the list. You know what was? Close relationships and having a mission, purpose that was beyond themselves and generosity

and pouring into their mission with generosity. It's almost like God built us to know, grow, and go, like he asked us to in scripture. Another study, UC Berkeley, the Greater Good Science Center. That's the funniest name to me. That sounds like it'd be on Zoolander. The the the

the part the whatever for people that really don't read well, good, and want to. But they did a study that says generosity leads to lower depression, less stress, better health, and people who are generous actually live longer.

The Journal of Economic Psychology, they did a psychology study and discovered that when you spend money and you're more generous to others, it increases happiness at a much greater rate than spending it on yourself.

And they did that across all income levels. So people say, well, if I had money, I would do that. No. The people who do it at any income levels are the one that get it.

And then this was the crazy one. The National Institute of Health did a study where they hooked up electrodes so they had people in the act of being generous, And they discovered that it activates the brain's pleasure centers when we're generous. And what their result of this is, it wasn't a Christian thing. It said,

showing their conclusion was humans are wired for generosity. Or as me as a believer, honestly believes it's not just it is a wiring, but it was also a design.

So what makes us so stressed about money and why some of you, when I talk about it, you wanna get so stressed is you've been caught up. It's it's it's it's your perspective's been warped. You've fallen for that. You've been ensnared by a trap. And what happens when we fall for that, we do that. I talk about this and you act like, no way. Stop talking about my money. And we get really stiff and we get frustrated

when the truth is it's when you act that way, you're acting counterintuitive to how you're really built. That real life, real happiness, real joy, really comes from doing the opposite of what you think you need to do.

And that's why we're supposed to use money as a tool, not a trophy, because look what it says in verse it's so funny. He finishes this, gives Timothy a few final instructions on how to be a man and how to lead, and then he finishes the letter by coming back to the money thing again.

That's how critical it is for these people that are in a wealthy area who are just not getting it. He says this, teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud.

Now that proud isn't like walking around look what I have. The proud is the stuff like what he knows what's gonna happen. What I've seen happen is I start teaching this, and you know, there there's some of us in this room that you desperately need to listen to this. But you think you know better,

and you wanna be mad and think, well, he's just talking about money, and you're shutting off. Don't listen to me.

Listen to God's word.

And if you don't want to, that's the very definition of pride, and that's what's gonna wreck your life.

Because he says, teach them to not be pride and trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.

Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. Doing this, they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.

He even says, Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so called knowledge. People are gonna say, I don't have to listen to that about money. I say, it's not true. I'm not gonna do it. That's the pride he's talking about.

And he challenges Timothy to say, stay bold because you do love your people. And this is what they need. And I say the same thing to us because I think we all struggle with the same problem they did.

He says trust should be in God. Shift what we need to do is shift from security and money to trust in the internal. That phrase be generous and always willing to share in the Greek, what it's really saying is it's not just give emotionally here and there. It says that we should be a people to be generous

and always willing. Says we need to be a people that are intentional, regular, and sacrificial in our giving. That's what generosity is by definition in the Bible. It's an intentional, regular, sacrificial thing.

And what's hilarious is that the people that wanna get caught up that what I say the pride is people wanna talk to me about, well, what percentage that? How much do need to give? What are you talking about? What if I do this? What if I do that? Can I just tell you one thing?

If you're arguing to find out what's the minimum you have to give, that's not generosity. You know, if if you're arguing the minimum,

that's not the definition of generosity. You know you have an issue in your heart. If you're like, I have to find the loophole. That's what he's talking about. The pride of these people. Like, they're looking, wow, you know, they're always trying to

generosity. I don't wanna talk about percentages. I don't wanna talk about rules. The the Bible actually this command of being generous is the only command in scripture that God says test me on this. I challenge you to test me. Give it a chance and see what happens in your life.

Because he knows it's such a problem with us. It is such. It's the number one problem we have in the American church. As generous as this church is, I say it's still the number one spiritual problem we have with regular people in this church. Still the number one issue.

And and and and and and then the pride says people like the fight go, why does the church need the money? Why are we spending on this? Why are we doing this? Right? If you just took what God used to consider just the base minimum of a tithe, and you multiply it by our median income and our size of our church,

I think we are under doing. God has so many more good works for us to be a part of. Matter of fact, I did the math. And based on our median income and our attendance of people that say this is their church and they love the Lord, if if if people gave 10 percent, our giving would be $48,000,000 a year

instead of 12,000,000. I think God has so much more blessings, so many more incredible things that we could be doing. And then we watch the world and go, what's wrong with the world? Why is it going to hell? Says, we've been invited to let go of our trophy, and we can walk away. And that's a gift.

It's a gift. It's not an obligation. It's an opportunity. See, what the the the war perspective and the pride says, all we think about when we talk about generosity is the money leaving you.

Almost like it's a moving truck. It's just loaded up, and you're waving at as it drives down the street, never to be seen again. But what the Bible over and over says is when we use generosity is our only weapon against greed and these destructive forces in the wrong perspective. So that moving truck doesn't just take money. It's got a trailer on it. It takes away the fights, the frustration,

the fears, the control, the anger. All these things leave with it. And then the cool thing is after that turns the corner, God pulls in a new moving truck and goes, now I'm gonna unload contentment,

and joy, and peace, and and and and an understanding and in a part of and being a part. I'm gonna let you be a part of what I'm doing in the world that that all those studies, secular studies says having a purpose bigger than yourself. What is a bigger purpose than getting to help guide people to an eternal relationship

with the Lord? What is bigger than that? And we get to be a part of that. And yet we sit around and go, crickets,

because we're trapped and ensnared. I do it. You do it. We all do it. And and and this

John Henry Jowett said it this way, the real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money.

I know this hits everybody, but guys, I know that that freight statement hits us really hard because I am a guy. And one of the worst perspective we get is we somehow tie our ability to provide and our ability to be successful

and our ability to have money and show that we're good at what we do ties directly into our self worth. What happened if you didn't have any money? What's what happens to your self esteem? I know it's me. I know it's not right and accurate, and I don't have to think this way, but I wanna go down that road. I wanna I wanna

wanna feel really bad about myself.

And that's why I think we fight God on this. We won't let go. We act like a monkey.

And I know this, and I'm not saying why do you do that? I said I know this because I've had to learn this. The hard way too.

Because I get every struggle people have with trusting God in this way and being generous. I understand why it's easy to say, oh, this is just a trick to get us because we wanna I understand all of those things.

Because I've been a pastor for thirty five years. So think about this. When I was a youth pastor for over almost ten years, youth pastors are notoriously underpaid.

And I happened to my last few years in youth ministry, I worked at a church that they actually promoted me. Was doing family ministry, but my job, my pay stayed the same. And I was in an area that thirty years ago, the median income was a $160,000 a year.

And where my apartment rent with me and my two kids and my wife in the little apartment was $1,900 a month, and I got paid $32,000 a year. And yet the church wanted me to trust God with my money and be generous with them.

So I get it. I understand how you might feel if I'm saying be generous and give to the church. I get it. Think about how hard it was for me. What if your employer was the one asking you to be generous back towards them?

What if you go to work and the people you work for says, hey, not only are we underpaying you and overworking you, here's what we want you to do. We want you to give at least 10% back to us. How would you feel? That was my scenario, and I felt very justified in not doing it.

I had every excuse. Guess what? I go, I work sixty hours a week. My tithe is I just overwork myself.

And then I said, and God, you know, and then I actually but you know what? It made me frustrated with the church leadership. It made me frustrated with God, and it made me get in fights with my wife because my wife is smarter than me, and she is a beautifully most generous person I've ever met. She loves being generous with time and money.

And she says, let's trust God. He's it's always awesome when we trust God. I like it. And she loved the feeling of watching God take what we give and using it, and how it made her not fear for money. Because she goes, when we trust God like this, I don't get stressed. And yet I was holding it back and saying no. Go, we would give a little bit here, little bit there, you know, drop a $100 a year, whatever. And and and yet and I'm actually holding her back like she's now stressed because I'm not allowing this, and and and we're getting in fights.

I was already a pastor. In the midst of all that, my friend who worked with me in the church, Randy Deal, who actually helped us start the church, he's still around, he pulled out this scripture and a few others, and he challenged me because I started complaining about it.

And he goes, this has nothing to do with the church, with you, with the money, with your salary. It's 100% of wherever you're at. Do are you gonna trust God?

Because that's where life is really found. As it says, true life will be found. What he meant was you're gonna find the blessing. You're gonna find the contentment. You're gonna find the things that you think having more money will give you, and it won't.

The thing that makes you hold back and not be generous because you don't have enough. And you know what I did? I was like, hold on. You know what I finally did? I I gave in. I let go with the worst attitude ever. It's not like, oh,

blessed you for helping me. You know what did? I did it like this. Fine. Boom. Go ahead. I told my wife, let's start giving. Let's give a 10% before taxes. Right? I went from like less than 1% to 10%.

I mean, boom. I just said do it. Write the check right now. We didn't have money. I was like, let's just do it. I'm gonna I'll trust God. I'll trust God bigger than anyone. Let's just do it. Do you know why? Because then I'm gonna go belly up and then God and you all will know I'm right. Guess what? I was wrong.

And God loved me anyways. Even though I did it like that, I I did all I did was I did what the Bible said. I tested him on it. And I tested him with a bad attitude, and he still loved me.

Now was it easy? No. Do we have to say no to some stuff? Did we have to learn to not use a credit card? Do we have to learn to get out of debt? Do we have to learn to stop overspending?

Did I have to stop staring at the candy all the time? Like, don't look at certain things. I I like like look at housing. Like, used to love to go through model homes. My wife realized we should probably not look at model homes anymore because all it did was make us focus on what we didn't have.

And what we learned was, let's just trust God. Let's live within our means. And then you know what we'll do? Instead of every time we make more money, we made a commitment at that moment to say we will start raising our standard of giving, not just our standard of living every time we have more money.

Because that's to me what generosity is. And we did, and we made it. And here's the crazy thing. It was about three years later that God tapped my wife and I on the shoulder and said, move to Arizona and start a church. And in order to come here, my church didn't understand church planting.

They didn't understand, so they didn't give me any time to raise any support. They didn't personally support it. So I I thought I was poor and trying to trust God with my money then. I came out here with no job. I mean, I made up my own job.

But it's like, if you've ever started a company, you know, I I I got a job. I'm the CEO of this company. It doesn't make any money, has no clients, there's nobody going. I'm not actually getting a paycheck. So, you know, I paid myself. I took what little savings and what I had gotten because of those three years of figuring that out and living within a margin. And then also, they I had retirement, not a lot, but enough. I pulled that out, and then I sold my house that I miraculously got when I trusted God.

And and and and and God let me use that money, and I was living off that. I was paying myself out of what I had left. I was slowly going completely belly up, and I had to choose to do all that in trusting God. And here's what I know. This is why I'm so passionate about this. I don't want something from you.

I want the same thing God wants for you. I would have never ever listened to God on planting this church if my friend didn't challenge me about letting go of the love of money and trusting God three years before. Never would have happened.

So if I hadn't done that,

I would have missed out on the greatest blessing God has ever given me when it comes to serving Him and using my gifts and trusting with my money and to see the incredible blessing of all. The greatest blessing I've ever had, and it wasn't more money. It was you guys. You are the greatest blessing God has ever given me.

Well, not all of you, and you know who you are. Sorry.

I

have a weird defensive mechanism that when it starts to get too mushy for me and I'm gonna get emotional, I start joking because I'm gonna cry. And I want you guys to know that that's why I talk the way I do about this topic because it works.

The word of God is true. I've experienced it firsthand. I still have to daily get up and decide because it's really, really easy to get sucked back in. Cause we live in a culture that says the opposite of what we say to do is what the culture says we should do. I get it. It's hard. But don't miss.

Don't miss out on what the freedom not only will take away, but what it'll take you to as well. Father God, thank you, Lord. I thank you that you do love us more than we love ourselves. I thank you for your word. I thank you for your people. I thank you for the gift you gave me of being able to be here

with the people I love and a community I love, getting to serve the God that loves me and lets me love him back. So Lord, I just pray right now that as we look at how money isn't the problem, our motive is, I pray that you would speak to each one of us in this room and everybody watching online and speak to our hearts.

And may we be willing to just listen and be willing to trust. And Lord, I pray especially for those in this room that are really struggling with this. I actually pray for the people in this room that are mad at me right now. That just they just they just I just want them to see what you see.

I pray that you would just give them your eyes, your heart, that they would just listen to you. And God, I pray for anyone in this room that maybe is going through something really tough right now, especially financially. That maybe it's just a really and it's not from their cause. They didn't cause it.

It might be a health issue. It might be a business issue. It might be a job just going away on them issue. Lord, I pray for them that they could just feel your arms wrapped around them. And as your word says, as they walk through this valley of the shadow of death, they will fear no evil because you are with them.

So Lord, thank you. And I just pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey, love you guys. Hey, thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on our Rock Point social media to stay connected.